Jumping Lesson

 So we really worked on three main things in Sunday's jumping lesson.

1. Uno is not allowed to slow down in front of the jump.  He has a habit of slowing down instead of balancing because it is easier for him to just kinda crawl over jumps this height.  It is fine for little jumps but will get us in trouble over anything tricky.

Keep the hind coming

  2. I need to make small corrections to get his poll up. I rode in his hackamore and Trainer L really liked it - except that it makes it much easier for him to curl and dump on his forehand.  It is easy to get him to be level and waiting on me with just my shoulders, but he needs to be UP in front of the jump to actually jump well.  However, finding the sweet spot between being ignored and being offensive is still a work in progress. Which leads us to...

Keep the poll up

3. At some point I need to let go. He needs his head and neck to jump the fence and a lot of our balance problems come from him expecting me to hold him.  He cannot use his body right if I hold his head up.  So I have to let go 2 -3 strides before the fence.  I will be honest - it felt like I was completely dropping him, but then I watched the videos... Ha!  I need to find a few more inches of arm to give him even more space.

All 4 off the floor!

All of this adds up to a lesson that was bomb!  We picked right up and did poles, then jumps and cruised around a little course full of rollbacks and turns.  We even jumped an oxer (my demon) and by the end I was pushing to jump more.

All 4 off again!

Not all of our distances were great (most were not) but we found a ride that really works.  I get a good canter with my shoulders, then push my hands forward once I line up, a few strides out I squeezed my leg softly and cluck to keep the back end going.  He got really reved up and we had a fre spicy bucks, but he was using himself SO WELL over even these little jumps.  I spent most of my ride smiling or laughing and it was awesome.

Can he be cuter?!?!